Second teenage suspect in Jersey City murder is nabbed at the airport

An 18-year-old suspect in the murder of a Jersey City man was arrested at Kennedy International Airport yesterday morning before he could board a plane to the Dominican Republic, authorities said.

Joel Santos, 18, of Palisade Avenue in Jersey City, is the second suspect to be arrested in last week's fatal attack on Victor Martinez, 21, of Waverly Street.

Santos, who investigators believe used a knife to attack Martinez, is charged with murder, possession of a weapon for unlawful purposes and unlawful possession of a weapon, Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said yesterday.

Port Authority police picked up Santos at 9:45 a.m. at JetBlue Terminal 5, Gate 24, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the agency.

Santos is considered an accomplice of a 15-year-old Dickinson High School student who was arrested last week and charged in the murder, DeFazio said.

Martinez, a father of two young daughters, was stabbed multiple times Wednesday at Prospect Street and Palisade Avenue around 3:30 p.m. in what prosecutors say was an attack related to friction between rival gangs.

Witnesses said the juvenile took out the machete, repeatedly stabbed the victim, and continued the attack as Martinez ran toward his home nearby, according to police reports.

The machete the juvenile allegedly used in the attack has been recovered from an individual who was at the scene of the crime, the prosecutor said.

According to the preliminary autopsy report released Friday, the state Regional Medical Examiner's Office in Newark found the cause of death was multiple sharp force injuries to the chest and back, DeFazio said. Martinez, who was stabbed twice in the right side of his chest, twice in the back, and twice on his right forearm, was pronounced dead at Christ Hospital at 4:26 p.m., officials said.

Both suspects were arrested based on interviews with numerous individuals who were part of a "very large crowd"; who were present when this incident took place, said DeFazio, noting, "The investigation is continuing and there may be other arrests in the case."

Santos is expected to appear in Central Judicial Processing court in Jersey City on Tuesday, DeFazio said.

The 15-year-old made his first court appearance on the charges in Hudson County Superior Court's Family Division on Thursday and DeFazio said the prosecutors are seeking to prosecute him as an adult.

Anyone with information on the murder is asked to call the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office's Homicide Squad at (201) 915-1345.